


We Won't Be Beaten By The Past

by silveradept



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chloé Bourgeois' Journey Of Personal Growth, Episode Fix-it, Episode: s03 Mangeamour | Heart Hunter (Battle of the Miraculous Part 1), Gen, Season 3 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-12 22:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21483991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Chloé Bourgeois is on her way to becoming Miracle Queen, but for three key facts: Hawkmoth always lies,  Chloé has done some significant personal growth, and, most importantly, Queen Bee will be second to absolutely no-one.
Relationships: Chloé Bourgeois & Pollen
Comments: 17
Kudos: 97





	We Won't Be Beaten By The Past

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a lyric from "Rising," from the soundtrack to the sixth volume of the Rooster Teeth animation RWBY.

Hawkmoth extended his hand, and Chloé saw the prize she had been hoping to get from Ladybug all of these times.

She desperately missed being Queen Bee. It allowed her to be a hero, rather than just play at one with Sabrina. It let her get away from the way that Mama and André whipped back and forth between being totally in love and not wanting anything to do with each other.

She could take the gift that Hawkmoth was providing, and take her place again among the heroes of Paris.

Except Hawkmoth had just akumatized her parents. And someone had sabotaged her Bee Signal. Could she trust Hawkmoth to keep his word?

She grabbed the Bee Miraculous and put it in her hair. Whatever Hawkmoth did next, she would keep her power. And use it for herself, not for him.

"Wait, my Queen —" Pollen began to speak. Ugh, the kwami would ruin her gambit.

"Silence, Pollen. You will speak when you are spoken to," she said, adding an additional silent apology for treating her kwami so.

"Pollen, Buzz On," she snapped.

Hawkmoth pulled back Heart Hunter. Thankfully, Ladybug and Chat Noir saved them from falling and getting hurt.

She _felt_ the akuma enter her while she was still distracted.

Of course, she realized as soon as it hit. Mama and André were never the real target of the plan. Hawkmoth wanted a sympathetic Miraculous wielder along with the box. 

"Miracle Queen, I am Hawkmoth—" he began

_"Get out of my head, Hawkmoth,"_ she snarled.

"My dear Chloé, isn't this what you want? You'll have the power to bring all of Paris under your control."

"I've changed," Chloé ground out. She _had_ changed. She hated that Ladybug didn't trust her, but she had been doing her best to try and be the kind of person that Ladybug could trust again.

"Have you really?" Hawkmoth said to her. "Ladybug won't give you what you want. You're still responsible for so many of my akuma finding a wonderful home. You planned to abandon your father and go with your mother."

Hawkmoth was always convincing, and he knew just what to say to make her doubt herself. Maybe she hadn't changed as much as she had thought. But she had people who didn't hate her completely. And she hadn't messed up the message she sent to Adrien about his Mama. He hadn't seen it, but that didn't mean she hadn't done the right thing with it.

She had wanted to go with Mama. Because she had wanted to prove herself to Mama that she was good enough. Like she wanted to prove to Ladybug that she was good enough. If she got akumatized now, she'd be letting them _both_ down. She could do better than be Hawkmoth's puppet.

A blaze of anger surged up and helped her think more clearly. She was _nobody_'s piece to be played and sacrificed! Queen Bee did not take help from Hawkmoth, because Hawkmoth always lied. He couldn't make her a hero any more than he could make himself one.

Chloé grabbed for her top. "Venom!" she snapped, calling on her paralyzing power. All she had to do was sting Hawkmoth, and Ladybug would see her as an equal.

Her body exploded in pain. "Chloé, obey me, and you'll get everything you wanted!" Hawkmoth insisted.

"No, Hawkmoth," she replied, advancing on him even though it hurt so much to take every step. "You're giving me everything _you_ wanted. I'm _taking_ what I want from you."

Hawkmoth growled at her, and then the pain, the akuma, and Hawkmoth were gone. She had won.

"Buzz Off," Chloé said. "I'm so sorry, Pollen," she said, as her kwami reappeared. "Talk to me any time you want."

"Well done, my Queen!" Pollen said triumphantly. "I could feel your power growing as you fought him."

"I agree. Well done, Chloé," Ladybug said, swinging in from above.

"What happens now?" Chloé said. "Are you going to try and take my Miraculous?"

"I could," Ladybug said, "and honestly, it would be safer for everyone if I did, but that would put us back in the same situation as before. If you're going to keep this Miraculous, Chloé, you have to understand that it means Hawkmoth and Mayura will target you, your family, your friends, and even your classmates relentlessly. You won't ever have a normal life again, and…you won't ever be able to take a break. Not until Hawkmoth and Mayura are defeated for good."

Chloé considered Ladybug's words carefully. Her heart said she could handle it, that having Pollen again would be worth any cost, but she'd come so close to giving in to Hawkmoth. If she wanted to be a hero, she would have to become heroic.

"I…I can do it, Ladybug," Chloé said, hoping it sounded more confident to Ladybug than it did to her. "But I need you to believe in me."

Ladybug looked thoughtful. "I can do that, Chloé," she said carefully, "but you have more than me to convince, and you'll have to be better to everyone around you to do that."

"You can't expect me to be nice," Chloé said, and immediately regretted it. 

"I'm not," Ladybug said, swinging her yo-yo to be on her way. "I expect you to be a hero." Without giving her a chance to respond, Ladybug flew off into the skyline.

"I believe in you, my Queen," Pollen said from her hair.

It was a start.

**Author's Note:**

> This work uses a Season 3 Chloé:, like the one we saw in Félix, rather than the Season 1 or 2 Chloé the canon plot relied on. She's not perfect or redeemed here, but she deserved a better and more nuanced treatment than what she got in the source.


End file.
